Well well well, who's that a'callin'?

For some strange reason this 'Peter Paul and Mary' song has been running through my mind over the past week or so.

Today, as I went out and about looking for anything 'new', I realised that it was the 'Big Bad Wolf' who was 'calling' on Youseff Hassan Street, and he was determined to 'Blow your house down'! Just to let everyone know that he meant business, he had with him a detachment of riot police (complete with shields and everything) and soldiers armed with nasty looking sticks! Here they are:

The first sign that something was amiss, was that some of Mohamed Saber's 'stuff' had been hidden in our little alley, instead of lying in the street outside. Then, on gaining the actual roadway, I found the traffic almost at a standstill, with a smartly uniformed policeman trying to direct it, lol.

I could hear a siren coming from further up the street, but couldn't yet see what it was. After a good few minutes this armoured police van appeared, see the three portholes for their guns?

The Big Bad Wolf must have had a bad chest, 'cause instead of actually 'blowing' things down, he'd brought with him a great big Caterpillar digger and a tipper truck. (I'm very tempted to say "It's a lovely shovel", but those of you who aren't familiar with my mate in 'The Testing of Eric Olthwaite' mightn't quite get the relevance.) Here it is ripping up some delinquent steps:

The detritus was just left, the tipper truck was only there to take away the big pieces.

Here's the remains of the aforementioned steps, it's going to be rather awkward getting in and out of those shops now, don't you think?

They were very nice marble, always kept well swept and clear of debris. Like (I suspect) you and many others, I was appalled at the seemingly wanton destruction, but then I put my brain in to gear! 

Right is right, but wrong is equally always wrong! When I looked at the small 'Lotus Mall' just a few doors up, I couldn't help but notice that their steps were actually within the building, and not built on top of the public footpath! If the owners of that place could do it, then why couldn't the others? Laziness, and the will to use something to which they have no right, in order to benefit themselves. Or put another way: to not recognise the rights of others, and try to illegally gain an unfair advantage. Hurrah for President Mursi, he seems to be trying to create a 'level playing field' for business, something which UK governments have singularly failed to do over the last 50 years or so, to my certain knowledge!

Since the revolution, there have been many 'shops' appear on the pavements here and there. They're made of thin plywood nailed onto 3x2 spars. One such appeared at the end of the tourist souk, selling bottled water, cans of pop, and music tapes and CD's. When I took this picture, the boy was frantically running around looking for boxes in which to pack his stuff, before they swept his makeshift shop to oblivion! 

Poor picture, I know, but the police don't take kindly to tourists taking pictures of the less savoury elements of their work! The 'shop' in question is directly below the picture of the heart throb pop singer.

Here's a shot of the butcher's 'shop' which has been trading at the entrance to the local souk for a year or so. It was also in the process of being dismantled, hence the long spars at the left of the frame.

Let's face it, why should one man pay property taxes, and what have you, in order to run his small business, and then someone else nails a few pieces of wood together, parks them on the public footpath, and is allowed to trade and undercut the prices of the 'real' business. It's just not fair!!!

I laboured under the self-same circumstances in England for over 40 years, constantly being undercut by various cowboy outfits, and would have loved to have seen 'officialdom' acting as if they had the slightest concern for the people who actually paid their wages!!! Rant over, for a minute, anyway! 

As I neared home, I realised that I'd missed the action right outside my front door, so to speak! Just across the road, the two shops built into the school wall had had a nice metal framed canopy, to shelter them from the sun; not any more!

I cannot really imagine what harm the canopy was doing, as it wasn't on the pavement and you'd have to be about 8 feet tall for it to be in your way?  Likewise the frontal decoration on the Nubian Coffeeshop next door, but it's gone too!

I think that's quite enough excitement for the moment, don't you, Dear Reader? I'm about to try some packet soup, (not in a basket, though) which Freda brought from England, before having my nap. Who knows what we might come across when we venture out later?